The Empress Tames the Tyrant - Chapter 38

It felt as though time and space had frozen around Alicia. She could not even blink of her own volition.

“Alicia?”

Cayenne reached out casually and placed his hand on her forehead. Normally, she would have been startled, but she was already so shocked that she had no energy left to react.

“Hmm, you don’t have a fever,” Cayenne said composedly, having no idea how his previous words had sounded. “Alicia?”

“Ah, yes,” she managed to answer, finally gathering her wits.

“Perhaps it is because the night air is chilly.”

Cayenne made his own conclusion and readily took off his jacket, draping it over Alicia’s shoulders. To an observer, it was a tender scene, but Alicia’s mind was still filled with question marks.

“It would be best to go inside now.”

“Yes.”

“Since the two of us are together tonight, we can look at the journals together.”

“Pardon?” Alicia’s blue eyes shook.

No matter if he was the Emperor, how could he plan to settle the wedding night, which had not even been held at the actual wedding, so casually and without any warning?

“Why? Is there a problem?”

He spoke as if the situation were nothing. She had truly hated the cold husband of her previous life, but a husband who spoke of the wedding night so nonchalantly was equally terrible.

“We need to have dessert anyway, so we can go to the bedchamber and look at them now.”

“Pardon?”

Alicia’s eyelashes fluttered rapidly. Unfortunately, Cayenne missed the gesture.

“Now? And with dessert?”

“Well, it isn’t something that takes that long.”

Alicia looked up at Cayenne with her lips slightly parted.

“How could you say such a thing!”

For the first time, her gaze overflowed with strong resistance and an indescribable look of distaste.

“We have already had the wedding ceremony, so there is no need to fuss over etiquette and act like strangers.”

His words might have been correct in this world, but Alicia could never accept that fact.

“You are too much.”

“Me? Why?”

Her heart ached at Cayenne’s shameless response. Until now, she thought her only goal was to win his favor, but it seemed that after seeing his face every day, a clean line could not be drawn in her heart.

“Do you truly think nothing of it?”

“The journals my mother left behind are precious. I gave such things to you, so what more am I supposed to think?”

Hearing his increasingly appalling answers, her eyes brimmed with tears, whether from anger or distress. Cayenne, who knew nothing of the misunderstanding, was frustrated to the point of exploding.

“No, what did I do wrong to the Empress? Can I not even make that much of a request?”

Even if it was not a marriage of love, if he was going to take her so easily, why did he pretend to respect her? If he had treated her like this from the beginning, she would not feel so resentful now.

“Yes.”

As an uncontrollable tear rolled down Alicia’s cheek, Cayenne found his bewilderment even harder to manage.

“You certainly can, Your Majesty. Everything and everyone in this palace, including me, exists solely for you.”

At her voice, which shook with a sob, Cayenne felt a sharp pang in his chest. He could not provide a reason or logic for it, but seeing Alicia looking up at him resentfully with tear-stained cheeks, an uncontrollable surge of emotion rose within him.

“What on earth have you been talking about!”

Cayenne raised his voice without realizing it, then looked at Alicia’s weeping face with mounting confusion. He had no idea what was going on or what Alicia’s words meant, but one thing was certain: he did not want to see her crying.

“That, first, stop your tears.”

They say that when someone tries to comfort you while you are crying, the dam truly breaks. When Cayenne followed his shout with a bewildered, cautious tone, Alicia felt even more overwhelmed and burst into full sobs.

“No. Don’t cry more. I mean.”

Why was she crying so sorrowfully? Alicia hated herself for crying like a child, and she hated showing this side of herself to Cayenne even more. But the crying would not stop, and Cayenne’s expression as he watched her hiccup was a sight to behold.

“There, don’t try to hold it back so forcefully either.”

Cayenne was a man accustomed to giving orders. But he was driven to madness by the fact that even a supreme Imperial command could not stop a woman’s tears.

“I am… sorry.”

Alicia managed to speak, but the words only brought more tears.

“I will allow you to cry just a little bit more.”

Such words were not helpful at all. Watching Alicia continue to cry was so painful and frustrating that Cayenne could not stay still.

“No.”

He did not know how to comfort a woman. He did not even understand the meaning of the conversation they just had. All he could do was stop himself from seeing her in this miserable state.

“Indeed, stop crying.”

Cayenne instinctively reached out, pulled the weeping Alicia by her shoulders, and buried her head in his chest. This way, at least, he would not have to see her tears, and her sobbing would eventually subside. Alicia’s shoulders flinched in surprise, but she was crying too hard to have the strength to push him away.

“Sob, I am sorry.”

“No, no. Then cry a little more.”

Fortunately, as he hoped, her crying grew quieter within his embrace. He remained entirely unaware that, to any observer, he looked like a husband tenderly hugging his wife.

Having finally stopped crying, Alicia was too embarrassed to look at Cayenne. He, too, had pulled away after belatedly realizing he had hugged her on impulse, but the atmosphere remained awkward.

“What would you like me to do for you?” Cayenne asked in a low voice as he watched Alicia wipe her eyes with a handkerchief.

“Please… go back today. Please.”

Was this truly a matter worth pleading over? But rather than questioning a tearful Alicia, he decided it was better to simply nod. The sight of a woman’s tears was unfamiliar, but the fact that Alicia had burst into them was quite a shock.

“Then, I shall take my leave.”

Unable to do anything else, Cayenne turned to leave with regretful steps. He did not even think to take back the jacket he had draped over her shoulders.

“No, what exactly did I do?”

His face was still filled with bewilderment as he strode out of the garden.

“This is beyond absurd!”

His sense of unfairness and resentment flared up belatedly, but even if he went back now to face Alicia, he felt he wouldn’t be able to speak properly. It was a state that put his commanding presence on the battlefield to shame.

“No, why me? What?”

Cayenne let out a hollow laugh, yet he kept picturing Alicia’s tear-stained cheeks reflecting the moonlight.

“What did I do, for heaven’s sake?”

Even after returning to the Emperor’s quarters, he vented his frustration with the same words. It was only natural that Emma, who had been waiting for news of tonight all day, came running at once.

“Your Majesty, why are you so angry?”

Could she have been too hasty? Seeing the old lady’s worried face, Cayenne frowned deeply.

“I am not angry; I am bewildered.”

The front of his shirt was still damp with Alicia’s tears. Thus, what he had just experienced was a reality, not some absurd dream.

“Did something happen at the Empress’s Palace?”

“The Empress is strange.”

Cayenne entered his room, hurriedly poured a glass of wine, and drained it in one go.

“How could the Empress…”

“I would like to know that myself! We had a perfectly fine banquet and even went for a walk, then suddenly she stopped making sense and burst into tears!”

Cayenne let out another hollow laugh. No matter how much he thought about it, he could not understand Alicia’s behavior.

“Suddenly, and without any reason?”

“Yes. You surely don’t think I made the Empress cry on purpose?”

Cayenne drained another glass of wine in quick succession.

“Right before that, she even said she was happy to receive my mother’s journals and heirlooms.”

“Then, perhaps she was shedding tears of joy?” Emma tried her best to take Alicia’s side.

“No. She cried sorrowfully, and she even glared at me.”

That shouldn’t be the case. He could not understand the situation.

“I understood her reasoning for not checking the heirlooms yet. Instead, I suggested we look at the journals together, but then she suddenly treated me like.”

Suddenly, Emma realized a massive fact.

“Forgive me, but did you suggest to the Empress that you look at the journals your mother left behind together?”

“Yes. Since we were going to have dessert anyway, I suggested we look at the journals as well. From that moment on, she began acting as if she had lost her mind.”

To the quick-witted old lady, this was enough information to grasp what had happened.

“Everything was absurd, but her pleading for me to leave for the night was the most absurd part of all. I felt as though I had become a man who was threatening her.”

From Alicia’s perspective, that was exactly right. She must have understood his words as a suggestion to settle the wedding night they missed while having dessert.

“It is still beyond absurd. I ordered her to stop her tears, and she burst into full sobs instead.”

No matter how experienced and meticulous Emma was, she had not realized Cayenne would be so ignorant of palace protocol and marriage. Normally, everything should have happened naturally.

“Your Majesty, I have something urgent to tell you tonight.”

“I am in no mood to listen. Do it tomorrow.”

“No.”

Alicia was not the only one refusing Cayenne’s orders tonight.

“You must hear it tonight, right now.”

Cayenne’s absurd night was not over yet.